"tacogate"; "posterize"; "the full Mozgov"

[Ben Zimmer]

On Tue, Jan 31, 2012 at 10:15 AM, Laurence Horn wrote:
>
> The latter refers to the result of a particularly robust dunk in
> basketball.  The dunker rises up high and embarrasses the defensive
> player by slamming the ball into the net over him.  The hapless dunkee
> is said to be "posterized". (Not in the OED, which has an irrelevant
> sense for the word.)  Here's ud:
>
> posterize:
> a Basketball term meaning to embarrass some one usually while slamming
> the ball over them. It refers to the guy whos being dunked on in
> basketball posters.
> "Wow that guy just got posterized!"
>
> This is also in the recent news because of something that occurred in
> one of last night's games--well, you can see it on YouTube:
> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AbyOevVAYQI

I looked into "posterize" a few years ago, and the earliest I found at
the time was this WaPo article by Michael Wilbon, about Michael
Jordan's famous shot in Game 2 of the '91 Finals (a dunk that became a
layup to avoid Sam Perkins):

---
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/sports/nba/longterm/jordan/articles/layup91.htm
Great Shot! Jordan's Best Amazingly Goes One Better
By Michael Wilbon
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, June 7, 1991; Page D01
...
There was no indication Perkins would jump and attempt a block.
Probably, Perkins just wanted to get out of the way and not be
"posterized," which is what happens when the dunkee is humiliated by
the dunker.
...
Only one other such spectacular shot in a game of consequence comes to
mind, the time in the 1980 NBA finals when Julius Erving wrapped
himself around the basket, going out of bounds while in the air in the
process, and posterized Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Mark Landsberger with
a reverse one-hand flip off the glass.
---

I also found a variant, "poster" as a verb, attested from 1993.

--bgz

--
Ben Zimmer
http://benzimmer.com/

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